Friday March 29, 600,000 EDF customers will see red, for the last time in the winter period which is ending. Having subscribed to a Tempo contract for their electricity consumption, they benefit from incentive pricing – or rather, this Friday, dissuasive pricing. In return for reduced prices for most of the year, they suffer for twenty-two so-called “red” days, between 1er November and March 31, prohibitive prices, four and a half times higher than the “blue” days.
Objective: to encourage customers to consume less on peak days. A potentially advantageous price, provided you can react to price signals. How ? By turning off the convectors, which requires another heating method, and by postponing the washing machine, dishwasher and electric car charging. Otherwise, pay attention to the bill!
EDF offers these contracts, called “shedding”, to individual customers at regulated tariffs (Tempo) as well as market offers (Zen Flex). They are experiencing growing success. In mid-February, the company listed 600,000 Tempo customers, a tripling in eighteen months. In total, out of 34.3 million individuals with an electricity contract in France, 1 million of them have subscribed to an incentive contract with EDF, Tempo, Zen Flex or Peak Day Clearance (ancestor of Tempo , which is no longer marketed).
Significant source of flexibility
Commercial communication in favor of regulated prices is not authorized. However, an exemption was granted in October 2022, in order to mobilize new loads before winter. Letters were sent to 5 million customers to promote Tempo. In addition, access to this option has been extended to customers using lower power, from 6 kilovolt-amperes, in February 2023.
At the end of 2022, EDF estimated the potential to reduce electricity consumption in France at between 5 and 6 gigawatts (GW), all operators and customers combined. This represents a significant source of flexibility, given the historic peak in consumption of 103 GW on February 8, 2012.
Furthermore, around 10 million individual customers have opted for a regulated peak-off-peak rate. This makes it possible to shift consumption from peak hours to periods of lower demand: « 10 GW [chaque jour] at midnight “, according to Yannick Jacquemart, director of new flexibilities at the French electricity transmission network manager RTE, interviewed in the Senate on March 20.
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